Localities

At the “local” Farmer’s Market today, I bought my family strawberries that had been picked this morning in Santa Maria!

I don’t know exactly the driving distance to Santa Maria, but I know it’s incredibly far away from here. That’s quite the expanse of state to travel.

Based on my conversations with the regular farmers, it’s not unusual for them to get up and pick the day's produce in the earliest morning hours and then drive 100 miles or more to make the market. You have to go where the customers are, I guess. It’s just one more reason why I like supporting their work.

People are willing to go any distance – especially if their economic survival depends on it.

The Fruits of Victory

More and more often,
When I feel
Dismayed, betrayed,
Left behind

I remember to realize
That not only
Did I win
This high-stakes game

But that I myself,
I am the Prize

Deeply Contented

I cannot believe this day! How did I ever, ever get here?

The whole family's back to school. My daughters were thrilled to start third and fifth grades, and they came home raving about their teachers. We're so pleased. (Even if it is totally confusing to start school in August. August?!! Is it summer or fall? It was 104 degrees yesterday and after school, we went swimming!)

I surprised my husband by accompanying him to this teacher work day yesterday and helping him set up his classroom for this next year. We knocked out bulletin boards like a world-class team - 8 boards in one morning. His classroom looks so fantastic!! All yellow, red, and blue with flag borders and stars everywhere. (He teaches US History.)

I told him to consider it an early birthday present. He was so proud of me for coming with him. It hasn't been easy for me to be near schools and such after stopping my own teaching. But, like any long lasting grief, bit by bit, things keep getting easier.

Which brings us to today. First, I hit my favorite nine am yoga class. Aah, the stretching... Then, I popped over here, to what used to be my favorite Redlands cafe. I haven't been here in absolutely ages. They're in the middle of a rather disastrous remodel, with blank walls and chairs and counters scattered about. I used to come here all the time, when I was lost and lonely and hunting for work.

Now, I'm a published writer. I'm a registered yoga teacher. Best of all, I own my own business and have a KICK-ASS job!! I am working RIGHT NOW. Getting paid to sit here, sipping my blended chai and researching grants for my favorite nonprofit. Browsing through emails. Sending back responses. WRITING things.

Man, that college degree did pay off! :) I am so unbelievably lucky!

Ahimsa

Isn't this a nice quote? I found it while I was catching up on old work email, ending one of my client's requests.

"To love is to take delight in the happiness of another,

or, what amounts to the same thing,

it is to account another's happiness one's own."

- Mike Gottfried Leibniz, 1646-1716

Everything in its Right Place

The smooth comfort
Of your stomach beneath
My flattened palm

Your breath rises and falls
As warm as our bed
Together

In our world
Where we are
Making everything
Just right

Dahrling, it's too dull...

A friend once told me that she had broken up with her longterm boyfriend because the sex with him had become banal. That's the word she used, "banal." Isn't that a great usage? Next we'll be talking about the world-weary ennui of urban living.

Anyway, she went on. "If the sex life is boring, I'm out of there." At the time, I agreed supportively, the way girlfriends do. But something nagged at me.

Later, I figured it out. She was pinning the weight of their poor quality interactions on him exclusively. But two people are involved in relationships, and especially sex - well, commonly ;). If the sex was banal, wasn't that actually a reflection on her as well? In my experience, it's pretty darn easy to spice up a routine sex life. In fact, it's one of the things that one person can VERY successfully bring into a relationship. Who says no to more spice??

I just know that even when my own marriage was having its difficulties, we still never had less than good sex, and usually GREAT sex, and often FANTASTIC sex. If you like sex, it's just not that hard to enjoy it - and to be a bit creative.

In the long view, I actually feel a bit sorry for my friend now. We haven't talked juicy girl talk recently. But I can't help wondering how her hunt for the perfect relationship with exciting sex is going.

Or whether she isn't bringing her own problems along with her.

Mmmm...

I've been noticing that extraordinary sex is as warm and melted as butter...